Comparison between Different Extraction Methods in the Recovery of Bioactive Molecules from Melissa officinalis L. under Sustainable Cultivation: Chemical and Bioactive Characterization
Academic ArticleConference Paper
Melissa officinalis L., from the Lamiaceae family, is one of the most important medicinal
and aromatic plants with potential in the market. With the passing of time, the use
of medicinal plants in the treatment of some illness has gone from the simplest forms
of local treatment to the industrial manufacture of phytotherapics. In addition to their
medicinal effect, they can also be used in the form of infusions and decoctions and in
various food preparations. In this sense, the objective of this work was to compare three
different extraction methods: infusion (100% water), maceration (80:20 ethanol: water v:v)
and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) under previous optimized extraction conditions
(33.0 +- 3.2 min, 371.7 +- 19.3Wand 39.9 +- 1.4% ethanol), in plants grown under sustainable
cultivation under full irrigation in June. The parameters studied included bioactive
evaluation by antioxidant (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances—TBARS), cytotoxicity
(sulforhodamine B) and anti-inflammatory (RAWcells) assays. The composition of phenolic
compounds and organic acids was also studied by GC-MS and HPLC-DAD, respectively.
According to the obtained results, eight phenolic compounds were identified and quantified,
being rosmarinic acid the main one for the three extraction methods (infusion:
107.1 +- 0.9 mg/g extract; maceration: 155.7 +- 0.3 mg/g extract; UAE: 118.7 0.6 mg/g
extract). For Lithospermic acid A isomer (25.25 +- 0.01 mg/g) and Hydroxylsalvianolic
E (111.70 +- 2.20 mg/g), the UAE revealed the lowest content of individual polyphenols,
whereas maceration recorded the highest extractability. On the other hand, the content of
six of the eight polyphenols detected for the ultrasound-assisted extraction was similar to
the infusion and maceration methods. In terms of antioxidant activity, the infusions showed
the highest capacity (3.00 +- 0.14 +-g/mL), followed by maceration (5.33 +- 0.30 +-g/mL) and
UAE (12 +- 0.15 +-g/mL). The highest anti-inflammatory activity was verified for the infusion
(244 +- 11 +-g/mL), followed by UAE (305 +- 9 +-g/mL), with no activity recorded for
the maceration extract (>400 +-g/mL). The antitumor properties were evaluated in five cell
lines, with the best results being recorded for infusion, except AGS (24 +- 1 +-g/mL) where
The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT,
Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020).
L. Barros and M.I. Dias thank the national funding by FCT through the institutional scientific employment
program-contract for her contract, while M. Carocho and S. Heleno thank FCT through the indiviual
scientific employment program-contracts (CEECIND/00831/2018 and CEECIND/03040/2017).
I. Oliveira thanks FCT for her PhD grant (BD/06017/2020). To FEDER-Interreg España-Portugal
programme for financial support through the project TRANSCoLAB 0612_TRANS_CO_LAB_2_P; to
ERDF through the Regional Operational ProgramNorth 2020, within the scope of Project GreenHealth—
Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000042.
